wedding portrait in church

wedding portrait at Peace Lutheran Church

Stephanie & Dane’s wedding was my last one of the year.  It’s always a somber realization that wedding season is officially over, but it has been a very successful and busy year of weddings for me.  I booked more then ever before & traveled from the top of mountains to the beaches of Florida for weddings this year.   And considering I have a wedding in New Orleans in January, I don’t really have that much lapse between my last wedding of 2010 & my first one of 2011.

Stephanie & Dane were joined by friends & family for their wedding ceremony at the beautiful Peace Lutheran Church in Arvada, Colorado.   It was a peaceful ceremony & it’s always nice when you can tell the pastor really took the time to get to know the bride & groom and create a unique sermon just for them.   From Peace Lutheran Church a limo picked up the wedding party and everyone headed to Stonebrook Manor for the reception.  During dinner Stephanie & Dane displayed a childhood slideshow that ended with lots of photos of them together.  I always love seeing these at weddings, it really gets the crowd oohing and awwing, along with some tearing up & laughing.   The photos always make an impression and I love seeing how the couple grew up and what kind of things they have done together.
After lots of dancing the night ended with a bubble send away, which is always fun for pictures, and who doesn’t love bubbles?!   Then Stephanie & Dane departed from Stonebrook Manor in a fancy Porsche…that took Dane a few seconds to figure out how to drive off in, but they sure looked glamorous once they did!

City Park wedding

Patois restaurant wedding

Last week Kelly & Chris held a beautiful intimate wedding ceremony at the City Park Peristyle in New Orleans, Louisiana. We were blessed with perfect fall weather & a Saints win to start the day. Chris & Kelly did a “first sight” by the water, which is where I set up the bride & groom in a picturesque setting and they get to see each other all dressed up for the first time. This new tradition allows the bride and groom to not have to hide from each other till the ceremony, and allows me to still capture the moment on camera. You could definitely tell from the picture how excited Chris was to see Kelly all dressed up in such a stunning wedding dress. I found out at one of our consultations that Chris proposed to Kelly in Storyland, so I got permission in advance from the staff to allow the wedding party in for a few pictures.   We replayed the proposal by Cinderella’s pumpkin where the magic first happened and then as we walked out we got lots of gawks and squeals from little kids who must have thought the bride was Cinderella herself.

After walking around City Park for pictures with the wedding party, it was time for the ceremony.  We all took our places under the historic peristyle as the sun set down over the ceremony.  From there the bride and groom where whisked away in a beautiful antique Rolls Royce.  The reception was held at Patois Restaurant, a quaint sophisticated French restaurant uptown in New Orleans.  It was a fun relaxing  reception where the bride and groom surpassed the traditional dances and wedding flair for a more simple party atmosphere with good music, food, and friends.   The couple’s simple green style was represented in their arrangements & tree seeds as favors.   The live music for the ceremony & reception provided by the Courtyard Kings was a perfect touch and the food at Patois was overwhelmingly good!   The night was topped off with some funny & embarrassing toasts, and amazing cake.  It was hard for Chris & Kelly to leave when their limo arrived.  But with a honeymoon to Italy waiting for them they eventually said their good byes and took off for the next chapter in their lives.

Halloween wedding

Halloween wedding cake topper

Sarah & Dylan had the perfect Halloween wedding at the historic &  (supposedly) haunted Grant Humphrey’s Mansion in Denver, Colorado. Typically it snows by Halloween in Denver and with the cold chill that came in earlier in the week we were all thinking we would end up with a frigid if not snowy Halloween wedding day. But instead the sun was out, the weather was warm, and without any snow yet we still had plenty of bright gold & orange leaves painting a perfect fall picture for the wedding. Sarah & Dylan’s Halloween wedding was scarily unique, with body tags used for place cards, masks made for the wedding party, and even a small coffin to hold their rings that read “till death do us part.”   After a short and sweet ceremony on the mansion’s terrace the groom changed into a Scottish kilt and the bride switched to a black veil.  The wedding was filled with lots of surprises, including a extravagant skeleton topped cake by Intricate Icings & a  guest appearance by a remote operated dancing witch.   This will certainly be one Halloween that the bride & groom, and all their guests, will never forget.  Click “play” on the slide show below to view some of my favorite pictures from Sarah & Dylan’s wedding.  Please feel free to leave a comment below.

• Last chance for a last minute special….Anyone interested in a portrait session in New Orleans this weekend? #
• Had a photo shoot cancellation for Saturday. Anyone interested in taking their place for a portrait session in New Orleans?? #

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